"Surprise, surprise, a certain Korean company copies more of Apple's product design. When Apple launched the iPad mini in October 2012, Apple explained the design: the almost 8" screen size and thin border allow one-handed use. Now, the new 8" Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 has the same border design as the iPad mini." From what I can only assume is the The Onion of technology reporting. I love humour like this on a lazy Friday afternoon.

Yup. I find all this ridiculously funny given the fact that Apple's very *branding* was subject to litigation for years, given the contention that they 'stole' it from The Beatles.

This is a market. The market decides. Apple still has seemingly the highest levels of customer satisfaction regarding the iPad in relation to OTO (other tablet offerings).

The only time Apple itself will get up and do something really new here is when Samsung's market power emulates its own. It's called competition.

There are two types of conformity. That due to function, optimal physical/haptic requirements, as UX design principles that allow the user to find his or her employment of any tool or device to be 'intuitive'. A spade is a spade, after all.

The other would be due to diktat from on high, from states and totalitarian regimes.

Luckily we are discussing the niceties of the former situation here. As someone else has posted, others have less to be fortunate about, and are caught up in cases where they are struggling with dire political duress to fall in line, and I agree that's the real world. For example, I would get really worried if news articles on a certain ex-intelligence operative of the USA were based on deciding his personality type or personal preferences in light of his tablet choice :-s.